Thomann is the largest online and mail order retailer for musical instruments, light and sound equipment worldwide, having about 10m customers in 120 countries and 80,000 products on offer. We are musicians ourselves and share your passion for making it. As a company, we have a single objective: making you, our customer, happy.

We have a wide variety of pages giving information and enabling you to contact us before and after your purchase. Alternatively, please feel free to use our accounts on social media such as Facebook or Twitter to get in touch.

Great value.

A good value, playable instrument for those in search of some p-bass flavour & a little more.

Caveat: guitar is my main instrument, so my experience with buying basses is limited. I also own a slightly soulless Rickenbacker copy.

I needed an affordable but good quality, versatile bass for commercially released) productions/possible gigging. I'd recently had the pleasure of borrowing a '63 P-Bass and fell in love with the tone & playability, but owning an instrument of that pedigree/price isn't really an option at the moment, and bass is only one of many tools I use (plenty of other gear to buy). The Squire Vintage Modified/Classic Vibe ranges get a lot of love online, so after a fair amount of research I thought this a pretty solid option.

The bass arrived in perfectly playable condition: set up was fine, strings were ok. I replaced with Thomastik flat wounds after a few days, which really just a stylistic choice.

Appearance/finish is good - not dazzling but still very attractive. At a glance it looks convincingly like a real Fender.

Playability: as a guitarist, bass is generally harder work for me. However, this has a lovely satin-laquered neck and good fret profile (nicely filed). The fretboard could arguably do with a little conditioning.

Acoustically, the tone is pleasant, with a fair amount of depth and tonally variety. Plugged in, it's pretty convincing. For recording, it delivers a pretty consistent result - a little compression and careful playing helps. A pickup upgrade would no doubt focus the tone further. It doesn't take heavy abuse quite as well as the real deal, but the core tone is still good. The J pickup is nice for bringing bite/edge, but a bit anaemic on its own. Still, it has its place. With Thomastik flat wounds on it, I'm actually getting some Jamerson/Palladino vibes from this thing. N.b. I've only used it with amp sims thus far - a bass amp might well totally bring it to life.

Pickups aside, the electronics are fine. Crucially, it's quiet. Upgraded pots/tone caps might make for small gains, but there's no immediate need.

The litmus test is, does it make me want to play? It certainly does. It feels like an authentic instrument, with enough character of its own to make it a keeper. It's inspired me to write, and also really develop my bass playing beyond perfunctory accompaniment. I've used it finish a bass recording originally started with the '63 p-bass and, with a little eq/fx you can't really hear the join in the mix.

In summary; well worth the money. I might upgrade the pickup one day, but in lieu of a huge windfall I won't be upgrading the bass for the foreseeable. If I did, I'm not sure the lower range Fenders are quite worth the price leap. For a few hundred £ more I'd first give a look to the Sire Marcus Millers.

Do you believe this rating to be inaccurate or unacceptable for some reason?

Please give us the reason for your assessment in the following text box and  if possible  your e-mail address for further questions. Send report

Total

features

sound

quality

Fine instrument, but needs further tuning.

Pieredebeeste, 12.07.2018

I bought this bass as a first instrument. Out of the box, the sound was not that great (ringing A-string, octaves a bit off). So I had to take the instrument to somebody who knew how to tune a bass guitar. He said neck shape and action were good, but the saddles needed adjustment. It now sounds a lot better. If you're looking for a first instrument and expect an instrument that is really ready to play, then this is not the right place to buy it.

Offers include 24% Greek VAT and are valid as long as stocks last. Shipping costs to Greece are 20 EUR, free shipping on orders above 298 EUR. Please click here for international Shipping rates. We do not accept liability for typographical errors or inaccurate information of any kind. *RRP = manufacturer's / distributor's recommended retail price in Germany